A Long Walk to Water

Rochester, New York, 2010

This story is based on the life of Salva Dut. In this epilogue, he thanks those who helped him along the way: The Red Cross, the Moore family, St. Paul Episcopal Church, the community of Rochester, and his community college, Monroe. He also thanks the board of Water for Sudan Inc. and the many rotary and civic clubs, as well as individuals. He encourages young people to persevere as he did.

In an author’s note, Park explains that the war taking place in the story is called the Second Sudanese Civil War. While the war was complex and involved many competing factions and shifting alliances, its fundamental conflict was between the Arabic-speaking, predominantly Muslim government in the north and a coalition of non-Muslim tribes in the south. The war began in 1983 and continued for nearly 20 years, during which time many people millions of people were killed, tortured, or enslaved. It ended in 2002 when the United States passed the Sudan Peace Act, accusing the North of killing over 2 million people. The South was granted a referendum as to whether to secede.

The current Sudanese war in Darfur is separate and not covered under the peace act, but its underlying ethnic and cultural tensions are the same.